Taking on the Beast
by AutumnFirstLight
Summary: The children of the world are suffering and someone's going to have to pay the ultimate price to save them.


**A/N:** **Before you read this I just want to clarify that this has NOTHING TO DO with the story I'm currently writing and in no way indicates what's to come in future chapters. I repeat, this is entirely unrelated to anything I have written or am writing. It's just something that's been bumping around inside my head.**

Jack stared at the _creature_ that was the South Wind. While he watched the giant vortex of sand and darkness and fire stretched out arms a mile wide and cracked open a football stadium sized mouth and laughed. Its laughter sounded like the earth being ripped asunder and Jack shuddered where he stood beside Nicholas North.

"I DEMAND RECOMPENSE," roared South Wind, and trees tore from their roots.

"Recompense for what?" replied North, "No wrong has come to you."

"NO WRONG?" Answered South Wind, "EVERY WRONG HAS COME TO ME. THE GUARDIANS LIVE WITHOUT ME. THE PEOPLE OF THE WORLD DON'T FEAR ME. THE CHILDREN OF THE WORLD LAUGH AT ME. I CALL FOR BLOOD DEBT."

"The blood of the children," said Jack quietly. They already knew. South wind had sent a scorching heat out to a world that was roasting. Presently hundreds of thousands of children were literally wilting. Soon their lives would be taken from them. It wasn't a problem that Jack or North could simply fix with their gifts. It had to be conquered at its source.

"YES!" cried South Wind, "THE CHILDREN." And the temperature of the oceans began to shift.

In front of him stood a stoic Jack and North, strong and resolute despite being dwarfed by the size of this ancient power.

"WHAT DOES IT MATTER TO YOU?" asked South Wind, "ALL THE CHILDEN I WILL TAKE ARE NAUGHTY. I HAVE SEEN YOUR LIST, NORTH, YOU SHOULD THANK ME FOR TAKING THEM OFF YOUR HANDS."

"They do not know what they do," said North.

"NOT KNOW?" answered South Wind. "THEY KNOW. I SEE WHAT THEY DO AS WELL AS YOU. MANY OF THEM ARE ABOMINATIONS."

"They are young," answered a clearly pained North, "they can change. And what I do with the marks on my ledger are my business."

"I WILL HAVE THEM!"

"You want children." Said Jack.

"YES!" said the South Wind.

"What about just one child?"

"One very special child," added North gravely.

The wind calmed just a little. "WHO?"

Jack stepped forward. "Me."

He took a breath. "The naughtiest and nicest of them all."

"NORTH, YOU WOULD GIVE YOUR ADOPTED SON FOR THEM? JACK, YOU WOULD GIVE YOUR LIFE FOR THEM?"

"The children must be protected. We will always protect them." Jack nodded in agreement to North's words.

YOU ARE A GREATER FOOL THAN I THOUGHT. I ACCEPT!"

They'd prepared for this, thought it might come to this, but it didn't make it hurt any less. They had exhausted every option, tried everything. This was the last resort. With a final glance back at an anguished North, Jack flew until he was in front of the South Wind.

"EVERYONE THOUGHT YOU WERE HIS FAVORITE, JACK FROST, BUT WE WERE WRONG. HE CHOSE THEM OVER YOU."

Jack hovered silently and let the heat and the sorrow wash over him. He glanced back to North but North had turned his head away, unable to watch the boy he loved the most die for children he didn't even know. Jack's heart broke in two, but he stayed where he was.

"HE SAYS HE'LL PROTECT THE CHILDREN, BUT HE DOESN'T PROTECT YOU. AND I'M GOING TO USE THAT, JACK FROST. I'M GOING TO BURN YOU TO ASH AND EAT YOU UP. HOW IMMORTAL DO YOU THINK YOU REALLY ARE?"

Tears dripped from Jack's eyes and evaporated in the heat of South Wind's breath.

"I guess we'll find out," he whispered, and South Wind opened his gaping maw even wider, it stretched from valley to mountain, and he swallowed Jack Frost whole. Inside South Wind, Jack spun wildly, before catching fire in a horrifically bright display, and burning out.

North dropped to his knees and the South Wind laughed uproariously.

"NOT ENOUGH," he declared, "NOW I WILL TAKE THE OTHER CHILDREN, T-"

South Wind stopped. For a moment the giant creature seemed almost confused. Then it coughed. Next, it gagged. Now South Wind looked surprised, dare I say, shocked.

"WHAT? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?"

Through far reaches of the earth the air began to cool. The trees steadied on their roots, the oceans returned to their temperatures. The children stopped crying.

At the far reaches of the earth South Wind was screaming. He screamed and screamed. North held onto the rocky ground to save himself from flying away.

And, as South Wind continued to scream he also began to shrink. He shrank and shrank. He dwindled until he was little more than a dust devil raging impotently at the knees of North.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" it wheezed.

North looked down at South Wind with a wet face but hard eyes. "We have cut off your power, South Wind. This is your fate now. You have been sentenced."

And then North turned, shoulders hunched with a bone deep weariness, and went home.

…

…

…

Deep in the heart of the ice covered arctic a crack could be heard, and then another. In an explosion of sound a glacier split in two.

And there, in the center, lay a boy with white hair.

**a/n: Please review. It's not only a nice thing to do but it lets others know this story is worth taking a look at. Thanks!**


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